2024 Oscar Nominations Announced Including Several LGBTQ Nominees

The 2024 Oscar nominations were announced today, with several out actors and LGBTQ-centric films being honored. Today’s news marks the first time two out LGBTQ actors (Colman Domingo, Jodie Foster) have been nominated for playing queer roles. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749791737193889957 • Colman Domingo’s powerful work as Bayard Rustin in the biopic Rustin has been honored with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This is the out actor’s first Oscar nomination and the second-ever nod to a gay actor playing a gay role in the Best Actor category. The first was Sir Ian McKellen’s 1999 nomination for Gods & Monsters. • Bradley Cooper directed and starred in the lead role of Maestro, a biopic about bisexual conductor Leonard Bernstein. The film scored 7 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), and Best Actress (Carey Mulligan). Note: Mulligan’s performance is one of my favorites for the year. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749790994177130565 • Nyad scored two nominations: Annette Bening for Best Actress as Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster for Best Supporting Actress. Both of those characters are queer, as is Foster. This is Bening’s 5th Academy Award nod (zero wins); and Foster’s 5th nomination (2 wins). • Lily Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns, was nominated for Best Actress for their turn as Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon. This is Gladstone’s first-ever Oscar nomination. The Martin Scorsese-helmed flick scored 10 nods, including Best Picture and Best Director. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749791159583719674 • Sterling K. Brown was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work in American Fiction, wherein he played a gay character. Additionally, queer composer Laura Karpman was nominated for Best Original Score for her work. • The record-breaking live-action Barbie movie garnered 8 Academy Award nominations. Out singer/songwriter Billie Eilish (who won the Golden Globe this year) was recognized for her song “What Was I Made For?” https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749789678671421814 • Anatomy of a Fall, which features a bisexual main character, was nominated for five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director (Justine Triet), and Best Actress (Sandra Hüller). • The ABCs of Book Banning, which chronicles the banning of LGBTQ books in schools, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749790049036890450 • The LGBTQ-inclusive animated film Nimona received a nomination for Best Animated Feature. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749790284484129123 There were, of course, some snubs. Most notably, Andrew Scott being shut out in the Best Actor category for his captivating performance in All of Us Strangers, one of the best films of the year. I thought out writer-director Pedro Almodóvar’s sexy cowboy short Strange Way of Life, starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as reunited lost lovers, would have been recognized in the Best Live Action Short Film category. Nope. One of the most talked about performances of the year, Barry Keoghan as the scheming queer main character Oliver Quick in the psychological thriller Saltburn, received no Oscar love. And I’m really sad to see the lack of attention to Monica, a moving drama that follows a transgender woman (artfully played by Trace Lysette) who reconnects with her dying mother (Patricia Clarkson) years after being disowned for being trans. But all the major awards group – the Oscars, Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards – ignored the film. For the record: awards season darling Oppenheimer received the most nominations (13), followed by Poor Things (11), and Killers of the Flower Moon (10). You can find the complete list of this year’s nominations here. The 96th Academy Awards are scheduled to air on Sunday, March 10, 2024 on ABC. https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1749800493227057624